\chapter*{Foreword}

More than a generation of German-speaking students around the world have worked their way to an understanding and appreciation of the power and beauty of modem theoretical
physics with mathematics, the most fundamental of sciences using Walter Greiner's textbooks as their guide.

The idea of developing a coherent, complete presentation of an entire field of science in a series of closely related textbooks is not a new one. Many older physicians remember with real pleasure their sense of adventure and discovery as they worked their ways through the classic series by Sommerfeld, by Planck, and by Landau and Lifshitz. From the students' viewpoint, there are a great many obvious advantages to be gained through the use of consistent notation, logical ordering of topics, and coherence of presentation; beyond this, the complete coverage of the science provides a unique opportunity for the author to convey his personal enthusiasm and love for his subject.

These volumes on classical physics, finally available in English, complement Greiner's texts on quantum physics, most of which have been available to English-speaking audiences for some time. The complete set of books will thus provide a coherent view of physics that includes, in classical physics, thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, classical dynamics, electromagnetism, and general relativity; and in quantum physics, quantum mechanics, symmetries, relativistic quantum mechanics, quantum electro- and chromodynamics, and the gauge theory of weak interactions.

What makes Greiner's volumes of particular value to the student and professor alike is their completeness. Greiner avoids the all too common ``it follows that...,'' which conceals several pages of mathematical manipulation and confounds the student. He does not hesitate to include experimental data to illuminate or illustrate a theoretical point, and these data, like the theoretical content, have been kept up to date and topical through frequent revision
and expansion of the lecture notes upon which these volumes are based.


Moreover, Greiner greatly increases the value of his presentation by including something like one hundred completely worked examples in each volume. Nothing is of greater importance to the student than seeing, in detail, how the theoretical concepts and tools. Especially necessary is a greater amalgamation between the actual physical problems and
the necessary mathematics. Therefore, we treat in the first semester vector algebra and analysis, the solution of ordinary, linear differential equations, Newton's mechanics of a mass point culminating in the discussion of Kepler's laws (planetary motion), elements of astronomy, addressing modem research issues like the dark matter problem, and the
mathematically simple mechanics of special relativity.

Many explicitly worked-out examples and exercises illustrate the new concepts and methods and deepen the interrelationship between physics and mathematics. As a matter of fact, this first-semester course in theoretical mechanics is a precursor to theoretical physics. This changes significantly the content of the lectures of the second semester addressed in the volume \textit{Classical Mechanics: System of Particles and Hamiltonian Dynamics}.

The new mathematical tools are explained and exercised in many physical examples. In the lecturing praxis, the deepening of the exhibited material is carried out in a three-hour-per-week theoretica, that is, group exercises where eight or ten students solve the given exercises under the guidance of a tutor.

Biographical and historical footnotes anchor the scientific development within the general context of scientific progress and evolution. In this context, I thank the publishers Harri Deutsch and F. A. Brockhaus (Brockhaus Enzyklopiidie, F.A. Brockhaus, Wiesbaden —— marked by [BR]) for giving permission to extract the biographical data of physicists and
mathematicians from their publications.

We should also mention that in preparing some early sections and exercises of our lectures we relied on the book Theory and Problems of Theoretical Mechanics, by Murray R. Spiegel, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1967.

Over the years, we enjoyed the help of several students and collaborators, in particular, H.Angem\"{u}ller, P. Bergmann, H. Betz, W. Betz, G. Binnig (Nobel prize 1986), J. Briechle, M. Bundschuh, W. Caspar, C. v. Charewski, J. v. Czarnecki, R. Fickler, R. Fiedler, B. Fricke (now professor at Kassel University), C. Greiner (now professor at JWG-University, Frankfurt am Main), M. Greiner, W. Grosch, R. Heuer, E. Hoffmann, L. Kohaupt, N. Krug, P. Kurowski, H. Leber, H.J. Lustig, A. Mahn, B. M\"{o}reth, R. Marschel, B. M\"{u}ller (now professor at Duke University, Durham, N.C.), H. Muller, H. Peitz, J. Rafelski (now professor at University of Arizona, Tuscon), G. Plunien, J. Reinhardt, M. Rufa, H. Schaller,
D. Schebesta, H.J. Scheefer, H. Schwerin, M. Seiwert, G. Soff (now professor at Technical University Dresden), M. Soffel (now professor at Technical University Dresden), E. Stein(now professor at Maharishi University, Vlodrop, Netherlands), K. E. Stiebig, E. St\"{a}mmler, H. Stock, H. St\"{o}rmer (Nobel prize 1998), J. Wagner, and R. Zimmermann. They all made
their way in science and society, and meanwhile work as professors at universities, as leaders in industry, and in other places. We particularly acknowledge the recent help of Dr. Sven Soff and Dr. Stefan Scherer during the preparation of the English manuscript. The figures were drawn by Mrs. A. Steidl.

The English manuscript was copy-edited by Kristen Cassereau and the production of the book was supervised by Timothy Taylor of Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.

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Walter Greiner \\
Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitat \\
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
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